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kernel 2.4.20 ext3 data=journal

In 2.4.20-pre5 an optimisation was made to the ext3 fsync function
which can very easily cause file data corruption at unmount time. This
was first reported by Nick Piggin on November 29th (one day after 2.4.20 was
released, and three months after the bug was merged. Unfortunate timing)

This only affects filesystems which were mounted with the `data=journal'
option. Or files which are operating under `chattr -j'. So most people
are unaffected. The problem is not present in 2.5 kernels.

The way I understand it, it will only affect you if you use data=journal, and even then you only lose the last 30 seconds or so (before dismounting the fs at shutdown). The bug wasn't spotted earlier because almost noone uses data=journal as it slows the system down a lot and provides little gain.

So it is *very* unlikely that you're affected, and even less likely that you have lost anything. Do you often save important files within 30 seconds of shutting down?